Nothing to blame for captain Herath. This is mainly our poor batting. In both innings total batting lineup relied on one batsman and the bowlers. This should be expected when we have over-rated players like Dhananjaya in the team.

There were some other players Sadeera, Udara, Weerakkody who batted considerably well during the England lions series. But avoiding all those players, selectors picked this man - Dhanajaya who could do nothing in the last SA series in any format. Now they may be happy.

Strange thing is Dhananjaya is also in the ODI squad, but Sandun Weerakkody has been left out who played a brilliant knock in the 4th ODI against SA.

Before we get to the postmortem its important to say well played to Bangladesh who after a shocker in Galle, came back strongly. They out batted us while we gifted wickets which made them too good in the end. This was always on the cards and some of us have been calling it for a while - this is an improved Bangladesh who could not be beaten as in the past unless we played good cricket. I reckon we will struggle to hold them in the limited overs which they are actually stronger.

So what happened to us? Well its what has been happening for a long long long time.....the inability to build a test innings AND self destructing when the time comes to take control of a test. We were 6 and 7 down before reaching 200 in both innings on a placid home wicket! Thanks to some lover order runs, we managed to get to 300 but this wasn't a 300 wicket as we just found out. Despite conceding a good lead, we fought really well to draw level on the 4th morning and went in to lunch effectively at say 10/1. The time had arrived to take control of the test and we lost 5 for 20 odd in the first hour after lunch to woeful shot selection and effectively the test was lost. We have been doing this for a long time - poor shot selection but its been against stronger opponents and we found enough reason to argue that all was well. Even the series we won 3-0 against Aus, we were 117 all out after lunch on day one of that series and 26/5 in the fist hour of the 3rd test.

There are isolated individual brilliances we use to justify that all is well but the reality is we have a problem with building a cricket innings, particularly in tests. The other horror is the catching and Bangladesh also dropped catches but it cost us more. These are our traditional strengths - batting and fielding and we are a long way off the mark.

I could not believe what I was watching on the 4th afternoon. Chandi played a woeful shot to get out to a ball which he should have left. Gunaratne offered no shot to a straight ball and De Silva poked at one outside the off - it was like we were hell bent on losing the advantage.

Lets take a moment to acknowledge Bangladesh who have come a long way in recent times, ironically under Hathu - the man we let go over a petty political matter. I think its a good example to highlight where the two teams are. Bangladesh grabbed Hathu and gave him a few experienced players but more importantly, a string of talented youngsters. It also not a coincident that the BPL is such a success at the same time. At the same time SLC have.....well I guess we don't need to dissect that!

We don't expect Bangladesh never ever to beat us. Of course not, all teams have up and downs over a period of time however, this is a new low for SL and I expect SLC to keep telling us how all is good....

I prefer to give Asela the #4 position rather than Chandimal. Recently Asela has showed some great skills in batting through the inning which we have rarely seen from Chandimal. Asela is keen to start slowly and sensibly accelerate the inning when game progresses.
In this team Thisara has a big role as a batsman and need few tight overs as a bowler.

P Sara Stadium has come as for high praise in Bangla as the MOST MEMORABLE PLACE.. WORST PLACE for our team. Will our fools rush to stage any more important matches like with Indian, England, Australia there any more rather than at SSC & Pallekele?

Just Watched the scorecard of the practice match today. Is our bowling unit toothless that much...........??? Seems to be struggling to defend 354 runs.Are we going to miss someone like Malinga in our ODI lineup for the series.....???

Player like Danushka Gunathilaka may do miracles in local matches and practice matches. But it seems like he is a complete looser when it comes to the international level. Not confident enough to handle the pressure at the international level. What a lazy shot he played to get out. Completely spoiled this run chase for Sri Lanka.

However, it was nice to see Chandimal and Thisara back. We desperately need Dickwella for the next ODI.

I agree it was a lazy shot but i think he should still be in the team for the remainder of this series. His bowling is useful and i also think he is the best fielder in the team. Dickwella should go back to his normal spot next match. I think its best if Kusal Mendis sits out next match and let Gunathilaka play another match. I would prefer Chandimal at 3 and Gunathilaka at 4.

Yes, Suren1998. Definitely Dickwella should open with Tharanga in the next ODI.

But, It's not a good decision to drop Kusal Mendis for Gunathilaka. Mendis is a far more better batsman than Gunathilaka. Actually We need Gunathilaka as a proper batsman not as a part time bowler. If we desperately need a part time bowler, we have Milinda in the team. So, no need of keeping Gunathilaka just because of his part time bowling.

If I'm gonna give him one more chance to Gunathilaka in the second ODI, I would use him as the #6 batsman. No need to change the positions of our current key batsmen (Dickwella-Tharanga-Mendis-Asela-Chandimal). I still believe Asela should bat at #4.

Folks that was a sad performance! We played Bangladesh in the past and they played like us. We looked like novices against a polished side who had all bases covered. We have been making excuses - its SA in SA and its NZ in NZ but if we are still asleep its time to wake up. If we don't understand the 50 over format just ask Bangladesh! Its simple, field well and target over 300! Bangladesh were electric on the field while we were lethargic. They had a simple plan - don't bat 275 batters but bat 300+ batters. We had Tharanga and Chandi in the top 4 - never going to chase 300+ with these traditional players in the top 4.

Their top 3 made 100+ while we were 30/3 - game over in the first hour! This has been our issue for so long time, its now almost like we don't realize what the issue is. This is basically it - if we don't stand up now we will go down to the bottom of the barrel to fight it out with Zim and WI. Hard to think or even imagine but its a reality right now!